Investors are looking to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as one tool to help guide impactful investments. This episode of Fixed on ESG explores the role of the SDGs as a framework for identifying opportunities, SDG-related challenges (e.g. “SDG washing"), the financing gap, methodological issues in assessing contributions, and factors to consider when balancing operational performance with business model alignment.

PGIM Fixed Income’s Nuvneet Dhillon, CFA, ESG Specialist, hosts this discussion with Armelle de Vienne, Co-Head of ESG Research, and Yacine Rachid, ESG Specialist.

Recorded on March 19, 2025.

Securitised credit is emerging as a key driver in financing the green transition, offering investors opportunities to support ESG initiatives without sacrificing return. This episode of Fixed on ESG navigates how securitisation helps fund green assets, the challenges of measuring financed emissions, and the evolving regulatory landscape in the U.S. and Europe. We break down the mechanics of green securitisation and discuss how investors can navigate this space.

PGIM Fixed Income’s Taylor Chatlos, ESG Specialist, hosts this discussion with David Klausner, ESG Specialist, and Edwin Wilches, CFA, Co-Head of Securitised Products.

Recorded on March 12, 2025.

Can green bonds—intended to drive sustainability—complicate emissions reporting? This episode of Fixed on ESG explores the complexities of green bonds and their reported emissions. We examine a proposal by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and highlight issues like vanishing emissions, unallocated proceeds, increased reporting demands, and the need for a comprehensive approach to emissions assessment, while considering the broader implications for investors.

PGIM Fixed Income’s Taylor Chatlos, ESG Specialist hosts this discussion with John Ploeg, CFA, Co-Head of ESG Research.

Recorded on January 23, 2025.

With COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan now concluded, the conference ultimately delivered mixed results. In this episode of Fixed on ESG, we analyse the key takeaways from the event, including the geopolitical tensions, financial commitments, and growing Global North-South divide that influenced the outcomes. We also highlight under-the-radar wins, such as methane reduction pledges and the establishment of new carbon market rules, and finally, consider whether COP can continue to drive meaningful change.

PGIM Fixed Income’s John Ploeg, CFA, Co-Head of ESG Research, hosts this discussion with Nuvneet Dhillon, CFA, ESG Specialist.

Recorded on December 17, 2024.

There are many top-down tools that attempt to model climate-related credit risks, but risks relating to the transition towards a low carbon economy often stem from complex regulation and hotly debated policy that are not easily captured in simplistic models. In this episode of Fixed on ESG, we focus on the EU autos sector as a means of exploring how we leverage our bottom-up research approach to analyse climate risks. We discuss the tightening of EU automobile manufacturer emissions targets, limitations of current climate value-at-risk (Climate VaR) models, and the research process we employ to integrate climate transition risks into our credit analysis.

PGIM Fixed Income’s Alistair Shepheard-Walwyn, CFA, ESG Specialist, hosts this discussion with Chris Roberts, European Investment Grade Credit Research Analyst.

Recorded on November 26, 2024.

The past decade’s explosive increase in digitalisation is forecast to continue exponentially in the coming years. This expansion of the digital economy is fueling the need for data centres. But data centre growth may see significant challenges given the large amounts of electricity they require. Uncertainty about how quickly their power demand will grow is also creating challenges for utilities that have to plan their generation capacity years in advance. Meanwhile, major tech companies claim to be fueling much of their electricity consumption with low carbon energy. But, the story may not be as simple as they make it appear. This episode of Fixed on ESG provides a comprehensive look at data centres’ energy use, the implications of this for utilities, methods of renewable energy procurement, and how companies account for this in their emissions reporting.

PGIM Fixed Income’s Birgit Lundem Jakobsen, ESG Specialist, hosts this discussion with John Ploeg, CFA, Co-Head of ESG Research, and Patrick Myers, CFA, U.S. Leveraged Finance Credit Research Analyst.

Recorded on October 25, 2024.

The rising cost of housing has brought into full view the need for more affordable housing solutions. Fannie Mae's new Mission Index aims to assist the housing market by enhancing transparency and supporting disadvantaged borrowers. This episode of Fixed on ESG explores the Mission Index and Social Bond Framework for single-family RMBS pools, looking at pool composition, prepayment performance, the collaborative effort behind the launch, and more.

David Klausner, ESG Specialist at PGIM Fixed Income, hosts this discussion with Nick Sapirie, Vice President of Single-Family Capital Markets at Fannie Mae, and Kaustub Samant, Head of Mortgage Credit Research at PGIM Fixed Income.

Recorded on September 5, 2024.

Debt-for-nature swaps have come to the forefront as a unique solution for both environmental conservation and debt alleviation. In this episode of Fixed on ESG, we are joined by The Nature Conservancy, an organization that's aided in structuring several of these types of instruments. Together, we examine their role in alleviating the post-pandemic debt surge in developing economies, the environmental benefits of these instruments, and challenges for investors and measuring effectiveness.

Yacine Rachid, ESG Research Analyst at PGIM Fixed Income, hosts this discussion with Slav Gatchev, Sustainable Debt Managing Director at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Armelle de Vienne, Co-Head of ESG Research at PGIM Fixed Income.

Recorded on August 1, 2024.